


The Cure For Pain

by Byrcca



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Episode: s02e20 Investigations, F/M, Father-Son Relationship, Flirting, Proto P/T
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 12:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14080752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Byrcca/pseuds/Byrcca
Summary: A latenight conversation and a lesson in flirting.





	The Cure For Pain

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Miserable Martian Merry Christmas](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9037754) by [CaptAcorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptAcorn/pseuds/CaptAcorn). 



> Inspired by A Miserable Martian Merry Christmas by CaptAcorn, chap. 5: Five Golden Rings. I couldn’t get it out of my head. Its funny how everything else springs up and grows and blooms around a single thought. 
> 
> Set between Investigations and Deadlock because we need a little peace and quiet, and takes certain events in Jeri Taylor’s novel Mosaic as canon. References to lizards and the consequences of flying too fast.

_I as a boy, I believed the saying the cure for pain was love  
How would it be if you could see the world through my eyes?_

 

***

The messhall was dim and deserted, and B’Elanna was sitting in the shadows curled up on a couch enjoying the silence. She was reviewing tomorrow’s assignment sheet, swapping out team members and sipping an after-shift raktajino. She had hoped that after a year that her staff could work like, well, a well-oiled machine, but personality conflicts still cropped up. Dalby and Chapman didn’t get along—three guesses on who was the problem there—and Dorado had politely requested she not be assigned to work with Mulchaey because he apparently had a _crush_ on her, which made it difficult to get any work out of either of them, him because he got flustered and mooney-eyed, and her because she found the attention uncomfortable and her girlfriend had complained. 

What was this, middle school? 

And, after spending the last hour reviewing past crew assignments, she discovered that she had actually been pairing her people in groups of Maquis and Starfleet without realizing it. It had been a conscious decision during their early days in the Delta Quadrant, expedient, since neither side trusted the other or had any appreciation of the other’s skills. But now, it made her uncomfortable to think that she’d drawn a line down the middle of the engine room. Of course, look what happened when she tried to mix it up. Not that she could really blame Dalby; Chapman’s incessant cheerfulness would try anyone’s patience. She tried not to work with him herself. 

A peal of feminine laughter broke into her musings as the far doors opened and two people tumbled in, both tall and blonde, both apparently in a great mood. 

“—nd then the gravity went and we started to float!“ Tom said, with a self-deprecating laugh. 

“Oh no, what did you do?” asked the young woman with him. 

“Well, what could I do? I hooked my feet around the base of my chair and tried to hang on, but that just sent me falling forward. I bounced off helm control and suddenly I shot up to the ceiling.” He had a teasing tone in his voice that B’Elanna had heard before, when he was trying to pull one over on Harry. But true or not, he was obviously enjoying telling the tale.

“Hahaha!” B’Elanna flinched at the volume of her laughter. It was a nice laugh, warm and genuine, just a little too loud. “So, how did you get the gravity restored?”

“Oh, well, Bailey did that. But he didn’t warn me first and I fell straight down onto the console and I landed pretty hard. I don’t know how it happened, but I shot us straight into warp!”

“No way!” She swatted Tom’s chest. “Inside the cluster?”

“Yeah. But at least I fell into my seat. He flew straight to the back of the shuttle! Knocked him out cold and I had to get the dampers back online by myself.”

B’Elanna watched as she drew back and wagged a finger at him. “Now I know you’re making it up. Without the inertial dampers, he would have been just a smear on the hatch.”

“Makes a good story though, doesn’t it?” 

“And you lived to tell the tale,” countered the ensign. Jenkins! That was her name. “Any landing you can walk away from, right?” She grinned and placed a proprietary hand on Tom’s arm. 

“Sure,” he said and B’Elanna noticed an immediate cooling of his good mood. Jenkins didn’t. He slipped his arm out of her grasp in what looked like a practised move, and turned toward the replicator. “Coffee? I’m buying.” 

“Chamomile tea with honey, since you’re buying, Tom.” She smiled at him flirtatiously and he glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled back. B’Elanna’s own cheeks were beginning to ache in sympathy.

He shrugged. “I know the saying is ‘name your poison’ but you’re not supposed to take that literally.” 

“It’s good!” she shrieked, cuffing him on the arm she’d recently cuddled. Tom just grinned and took a step to the left, putting a tiny bit of distance between them before he lifted their cups from the replicator and handed her the tea. They walked the short distance to the closest table, and B’Elanna watched as Tom hesitated until Jenkins was seated before he sat himself across from her, rather than beside her.

“The most trouble I ever got into was charting a course straight through a planet. But it was a gas giant so maybe we could have made it.” Jenkins quipped.

B’Elanna found herself grinning at the ensign’s off-hand tone. “Well, that’s what the holosuites are for,” Tom said. “If you make all your mistakes in there, you’ll know what you’re doing when it’s real.” 

“Yeah, but sometimes don’t you just want to do it! No prep, no safe trials, just get out there.” 

Tom looked thoughtful for a few seconds, and B’Elanna leaned slightly forward, curious about what he was going to say. “Sometimes, all the trials in the world don’t help. You take all the parameters into consideration, you work out the math, but…” he shrugged, “you still turn into a lizard. Did you miss me while i was dead?” He grinned.

B’Elanna held her breath as she remembered. It had only been a few months ago: Tom collapsing on the mess floor, gasping for air. The absolute panic she felt when she couldn’t help him, her feeling of helplessness when she finally got him to sickbay. And when he’d died… How could he joke about it? How could he pretend that anything about that time was amusing?

“Desperately!” Jenkins said. “Though, I also wondered if I had a chance of being made chief conn officer,” she teased. Her hand had crept forward on the table and she placed it over Tom’s. She sobered. “What you did was amazing, Tom. Warp ten? I was jealous.” 

Tom slid his hand free, and picked up his coffee mug and took a sip. He held it in both hands in front of his chest creating what B’Elanna recognized as an effective barrier. Interesting. “Well,” he said, “I wish it had been you. You’d make a cute lizard.” 

Jenkins laughed again. She eyed him over the rim of her cup. “Have you ever deliberately pushed it?”

“You mean in training? In a holosuite? Sure.”

“When I was in third year, we flew too close to a white dwarf, on purpose, of course. We got caught in the gravimetric shear and got sucked in. My teammate, McAllister, got really into it. He actually thought we could escape!”

“Did you?” Tom asked.

She shook her head. “When the warp core started to breach,” she laughed, “we had to beam out into space in our enviro suits! And McAllister was all, ‘No, I’d rather get blown up than do a spacewalk!’ And we were all like, ‘But Johnny, it’s life or death.’ So we beamed out into zero gee and he ended up getting sick in his suit! Of course, right after that, we were sucked into the pulsar and the safeties ended the programme.”

Tom smiled and nodded, took another sip of his coffee. The silence stretched. 

“I’ve actually been thinking of asking Neelix if I can try his ship. You know, to see what the differences are.”

Tom tilted his head. “Surprisingly little, I’d imagine,” he said. “Weight, lift, drag, thrust. The factors of flight are universal. It doesn’t take that long to figure it out.” He shrugged.

“To a natural pilot, maybe. You know, Tom, we’re very lucky to still have you. And not just because you’re the best, damn pilot in the Delta Quadrant though I intend to be better someday.” 

She sent him another smile and her fingers landed on his elbow. So much for his defensive wall. It was more than obvious to B’Elanna that Jenkins was flirting with him, but Tom appeared oblivious. 

“What you did, routing out Michael Jonas, that was incredibly brave.” 

B’Elanna tensed, wondering if she was about to detour into a condemnation of the Maquis crew. Some of the ‘fleeters still held a grudge, B’Elanna knew, and Jonas’ betrayal had stirred up mistrust and suspicion. 

Tom shook his head. “The scariest part of the whole mission was thinking I’d lost all my stuff on the Talaxian freighter.” He winked at her, then looked back down at his mug of coffee. B’Elanna had a sudden flash of some of his uglier off-duty clothing, the orange tee shirt and ugly rainbow vest combination for one, and thought it might not have been a bad thing. 

“I don’t believe you,” she stated. “I heard you were injured,” she said softly. “That Seska almost killed you.”

“Naw,” Tom replied. “Seska and I are old friends. She loves me.”

B’Elanna knew it wasn’t true. She knew that Seska thought he was a Federation spy—well, he was now, she supposed. But Seska believed that he’d been spying for Starfleet during his short-lived time with their Maquis cell. Of course, she’d neglected to explain, if that were the case, how Tom had ended up sentenced to eighteen months in the Auckland detention centre for treason. But B’Elanna knew that Seska hated him, and for the first time she wondered just what had happened to him on that Kazon ship. 

“I can’t believe that anyone could sell us out like that.” Jenkins shook her head. 

“It’s not really his fault,” Tom demurred. “Well, it was, obviously, but I understand why he did it. You know, this Delta Quadrant stuff was fun for a while but it’s been a year. I bet Ensign Wildman would love to have her baby in the Alpha Quadrant. People just want to get home.”

“I guess so. But I am jealous that you got to fly that Kazon shuttle.” She leaned toward him again. “Actually, I have some holodeck time coming up, if you’re free, Tom.”

B’Elanna froze, wishing she was anywhere but there. Or maybe wishing they’d noticed her when they’d come in. She didn’t really want to witness the birth of _Voyager’s_ newest couple. Tom stilled, and B’Elanna noticed a slight stiffening of his posture. His smile looked forced. “Oh, you don’t have to give up your personal time to practice. That’s what the lab time is for.”

“Well,” she said softly, and B’Elanna strained to hear. She noticed that Jenkins had to reach so her fingers brushed Tom’s arm again. “I was thinking we could try something else, actually. There’s Risa. It’s a standard programme but it’s still nice.” She leaned toward him and smiled again, and B’Elanna wished she could see the expression in her eyes. 

B’Elanna expected him to say yes. She expected him to lean toward her and say something in that soft, sexy drawl of his. She didn’t think it was beyond possibility that he might kiss her; she was certainly, obviously, willing. But instead he straightened and moved his arm away so he could cup his coffee mug to his mouth with both hands. 

“Actually, I think I might be busy that night,” Tom said. “Harry said something about a pool tournament.” 

_Which night?_ Had B’Elanna missed that part? He tipped back his head and took a big gulp of his coffee, and missed the expression on her face changing, her smile falling away, replaced by a resigned pout. 

“Sure,” she said as she stood and grabbed her mug. “I’ll see you later, Lieutenant.”

“G’night, Ensign,” Tom called. “And don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll live through that pulsar next time.” He smiled at her, and she smiled back and sent him a little wave before she headed through the doors. 

B’Elanna held her breath, waiting for him to rise and follow Jenkins out. He didn’t. He was still smiling to himself as he raised his mug to his lips again. “Are you looking for company, Torres, or are you still spying on me?” he asked. That teasing tone was back.

B’Elanna started. Damn. She didn’t think he’d realized she was there. “I wasn’t _spying_ on you, Paris. I was here first.” She stood and walked over to his table, giving in to the urge to stretch after being still too long. He gestured to the empty seat beside him, and she hesitated a moment before sliding into the chair opposite him. “Besides, you’re the spy, not me,” she quipped.

“What are you working on?” He gestured to the padd in her hand. 

“I’m reviewing crew rotations. We still have a few...personality conflicts.”

“Ah,” Tom sighed. “I guess this latest thing hasn’t made it any easier.”

“Actually, that’s not it.” At his raised eyebrow, B’Elanna sighed herself. “Mulchaey is being a little too friendly with Dorado, and she’s not sure how to get him to back off.”

“She could mention her girlfriend,” Tom suggested. 

“She already has. How do you know who one of my engineers is dating?” B’Elanna asked. 

“Scuttlebutt,” Tom said, “it’s a small ship, and when it’s quiet like this any news is...news.” He smiled, then sobered. “Is he a problem?”

She shook her head. “No. She doesn’t think so and I agree. He’s not the type. It’s just a crush. I’ll put him on beta shift for a while and that will cool him off. And if it doesn’t, I’ll talk to him; I am his boss.”

“Sure, chief,” Tom teased. “And if that doesn’t work, we can sic her girlfriend on him. Lang is small but she’s all muscle.” 

“You’re getting this from scuttlebutt, too?” B’Elanna raised an eyebrow. 

“Tuvok assigned her to bridge duty,” Tom pointed out. “Besides, I’ve sparred with her a few times in the gym. What? If you want a real workout, security’ll give it to you. And, there’s the added bonus of figuring out all their moves. You know, in case you ever decide to embark on a life of crime and need to give ‘em the slip.” He grinned.

“So when did you realize I was here?”

“When I sat down. I saw you hiding in the shadows.”

“I wasn’t hiding, I was relaxing.” She harrumphed. “If you knew I was here, why didn’t you say something? Jenkins wouldn’t have propositioned you if she knew I was in the room!”

“By the time I was sure about what was happening, it was too late. It would have just embarrassed her. Besides, that wasn’t a proposition, if anything it was an...expression of interest. Testing the waters. That’s all.”

B’Elanna shook her head and her hair swung around her cheeks. “She was definitely flirting with you.” Tom looked down at the table. “So,” B’Elanna continued, “is Harry really planning another pool tournament?”

“I don’t know. I’ll have to ask him.”

“That was kind, the way you spared her feelings.”

 _”Kind?”_ Tom shot her a disgusted look. “That’s as bad as being called _nice._ ” 

“You _were_ nice,” B’Elanna stressed. 

Tom wrinkled his nose as if it were a disparaging insult. “Besides, she’s not really interested in me. She doesn’t really know me. It’s just a little hero worship of a senior officer. A...crush.” He nodded his head. 

B’Elanna thought of her crush on Chakotay while they’d been on the _Val Jean. And for the first few months they’d been stranded here_ , she chided herself. He’d known, he’d had to, but he’d never taken advantage of it, and he’d never made her feel like a fool. It had cooled and eventually died as they’d confronted their new reality on _Voyager._ “Still, you were kind when you turned her down. You didn’t have to be. It was nice of you.”

“Nice.” He said it again. “It’s like kissing your sister.”

She scoffed at the expression on his face. “There’s nothing wrong with being a nice guy, Paris!”

“She’s my subordinate, what did you expect me to do? Besides, she’s what, twelve?”

“She’s not that young, she’s a Starfleet officer. I think she was in Harry’s graduate class. _Besides_ , things are different out here,” she said quietly. “Seventy years.”

“Well, there are some lines I don’t cross,” Tom stated.

She laughed a little. “Come on, she’s pretty, she’s interested; you’re not even tempted?”

“Not even a little bit. But,” his voice took on that silky quality again and he ran his fingertips across her hand, “if you ever want to learn how to fly…”

“I can fly a shuttle, Tom.” She smiled at him, debating whether or not to snatch her hand out of his reach, but the heat of his fingers on hers felt too damn nice.

“But I can teach you to soar…” His eyes were glowing, and he raised an eyebrow in invitation. 

“There he is!” B’Elanna crowed.

Tom looked genuinely confused. “What?”

“The Tom Paris we all know. I was afraid you’d been taken over by a alien.”

“Ha! That only happens in old science fiction novels and tv shows.”

B’Elanna looked confused. “Dare I ask?”

“Television. It’s like a role playing holodeck programme, except you don’t interact, you just watch.”

She blinked at him. “Like a stage play?”

“Yeah. But more elaborate.” He shrugged. “I can show you sometime.”

“Maybe,” She conceded. “So, how often do random women proposition you, anyway?” 

He grinned. “She’s hardly random, and not as often as you’d think. I must be losing my touch. Anyway, like I said, she wasn’t propositioning me. At most, she was flirting.”

“If you say so. From where I was sitting…”

“She was offering to share holodeck time, not to…adjust my thrusters.” 

B’Elanna was amused despite herself. This easy back and forth with Tom was fun. 

He looked at her, an odd expression in his eyes. “B’Elanna, don’t you know how to flirt?” His expression softened, and his eyes warmed. “You know, I have some holodeck time coming up if you’re interested in sharing it with me….”

She suddenly noticed that he was closer to her and they were leaning toward each other, their heads and hands close. His index finger was still brushing her hand, sending little tingles up to her elbow. She jerked back to make space between them, and he sat up and his expression changed to neutral. “See? That’s flirting. Wanna see propositioning?” He grinned and looked hopeful, waggled his eyebrows.

“No thanks.” She wasn’t sure whether to be irritated or amused. 

“Ah. Crash and burn: story of my life.”

“You can act like a jerk now if you want to, but I still think you were kind. You could have been cruel, you could have made her feel stupid.” She cocked her head to the side. “Of course, she may still come to that conclusion on her own, Paris.” The corner of her mouth twisted as she suppressed a smile.

Tom drew back slightly, his eyes going round with exaggerated amazement. “Why, Torres, you do know how to flirt, after all. The subtle put down, the use of my last name. Well done.”

B’Elanna tilted her head the other way and rested her cheek on her fist. “With Klingons, flirting usually involves a little bloodletting.”

“That sounds intriguing,” he murmured, copying her movement and propping up his chin in his palm. 

“Are you sure you could handle it, Tom?”

“Another jab at my masculinity? If you don’t stop, B’Elanna, I’m going to start to think you’re serious.”

She laughed, she couldn’t help it. Sometimes Tom Paris was just good company. “It must be nice to know the captain has such faith in you,” she said quietly. 

He stilled again. “Is that how you saw it?” He shook his head. “Because it felt…” He sighed. “When she first called me in, Tuvok was there and I thought I’d actually screwed up. I was mentally reviewing everything I’d done, things I’d said on the bridge. It can get a little...relaxed when there’s nothing going on and sometimes I go a bit too far. To be honest, I thought Chakotay had complained but,” he held up a hand to quiet her, “I realized that he would have no problem calling me out all on his own.” 

He smiled at her and B’Elanna had to agree. 

“But I think it was worse to realize that out of a hundred and forty odd crew, I was the logical choice to play the screw up malcontent.” He shook his head. “To know that everyone would believe that I would turn my back on them, the ship…” He huffed a little laugh. “And everyone bought it. Even Harry. Even you.” 

B’Elanna glanced away, looked back. He looked sad, and his eyes held a sincerity that she had rarely seen. “I did try to talk you out of it. I knew you weren’t behaving like yourself.”

“Yeah, you did. I’m sorry if I was rude.”

“It’s okay. You were playing a role, right? But it bothers me that she didn’t even tell Chakotay. It’s obvious she thought the spy was a Maquis.” She huffed. “She probably thought it was Chakotay. Or me.”

“Why would you say that?”

“You mean aside from the fact that she didn’t confide in either of us?” She shook her head. “We both have the security clearance, we know how to hide a message and cover our tracks. Lots of reasons. Besides, we both know we were granted our positions on _Voyager_ as a peacemaking gesture.” 

Tom drew back and his mouth dropped open. “Okay. Chakotay, maybe, but what else was she going to do with him? Put him in the brig for seventy years? Sure, him being made XO was a political move, but it was also smart. He’s qualified and as much as I hate to say it he’s good at it.” He smiled wryly, then reached forward and took her hand in both of his. “And no one on this ship is more qualified to be the chief. You know that. Or are you just fishing for compliments?”

She didn’t quite know what to say to that, but before she could figure out a response he was talking again. “The Captain served under my father on the _Al-Batani.”_

“I didn’t know that.”

“Well, it was over ten years ago. Wow,” he said softly, “no, it was fifteen.”

“That’s a long time. She must have been young.”

“Yeah,” Tom’s smile was wry. “He snapped her up, fresh out of the Academy. I remember dad bragging about it, before they were sent on the mission. Best and the brightest, and she was. Is.”

“Did you meet her then?” B’Elanna asked. She wanted to keep him talking. It was obvious that something was bothering him, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. 

“Naw. But I know that’s why she came to me last year before, well.” He waved a hand around the room. “The thing I can’t figure out though, is whether my dad asked her to do it or if he tried to talk her out of it.” His smile was rueful, and B’Elanna was tempted to take his hand. 

“But you said yes anyway.” 

He looked at her again and his voice was soft. “I wanted out. I needed to get out.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t going to lead her to your ship, B’Elanna. I had no idea where you’d be. And I figured if Chakotay had any sense he wouldn’t have stuck around any place I knew about. It was blind bad luck that we both ended up here.”

She looked at him a moment, weighing his sincerity. “Okay,” she said quietly. “So, why did you agree to this mission? You must have known how dangerous it was. Did she order you?”

“No. It was strictly voluntary.” Tom looked into his coffee cup, tapped it on the table a couple of times. B’Elanna had long abandoned hers. “The good of the many, right? And I was the best choice.” He shrugged.

“I don’t know about that. Ken Dalby has never been happy to be here. I could have…” she shrugged. “Maybe not. But it’s obvious she didn't trust any of us. With good reason. I just don’t understand how I didn’t know. I worked with him every day, I’ve known him for years.”

“This isn’t your fault. You can’t be expected to know what everyone on your staff is thinking.”

She nodded. “Still…” she sat up straighter and sighed. “What you said about Seska.” She shook her head. “How bad was it? Really?”

He paused. “When the _Al-Batani_ shipped out, they were supposed to be gone for a year. Most of the time, when I was a little kid, dad was home. He taught at the Academy, and he worked at HQ. So, when I found out how long he would be gone, I was upset. I knew I’d miss him, and I was old enough to know that any deep-space mission was inherently dangerous.” 

“What was their mission?” B’Elanna asked.

“Officially? Science, exploration. They were heading out beyond Deep Space Seven. Unofficially, they were spying along the Cardassian border.”

B’Elanna felt a sudden chill. “No.”

“Yeah. About six months in, dad and the Captain were both captured by the Cardassians.”

“Tom.” Her voice was soft, and she took his hand again, squeezing it gently.

“I wasn’t supposed to know, the mission was classified, but mom told us. I don’t know who told her. And everyone knew what it meant to be captured. I guess the Cardassians were the boogeyman of my childhood.” He sent her a wry smile.

“How old were you?” She asked.

“Eleven.”

B’Elanna hissed a breath, and Tom squeezed her hand this time. She wanted to ask why they’d told him. She wanted to ask why they hadn’t protected him. 

“It was...tense. But actually, by the time we knew they’d been captured, they’d already been rescued. I guess there was a little communication breakdown.”

“Still, it must have been a relief,” she offered.

Tom shook his head. “HQ kept him for a while. They wouldn’t let us see him. Mom was furious! She rarely raises her voice,” he laughed. “Actually, she’s more the quiet type, you know? When she’s really pissed she gets really quiet, and then you know you’re in trouble. But I remember her screaming at some aide.” 

He scrubbed his face then ran his fingers through his hair. “When he finally came home he was changed, different. He was angry all the time; any little thing would set him off. And he got really tough on me. Controlling. He wanted to know where I was, what I was doing. I understand it now, but it was tough.”

“I’m sorry.” B’Elanna wondered if a controlling father was worse or better than an absent one. 

Tom shrugged. “I’d wanted to join the naval patrol but dad started to really push me toward Starfleet, which doesn’t really make much sense, you know?” He glanced up at her, catching her eyes, then looked down at his hands again. “They tortured him, B’Elanna. The fucking Cardies tortured him! And they broke him.” He shook his head. “He was never the same after that.”

“Oh, Tom,” she said. She reached for his hands and he squeezed hers tightly. 

“I wasn’t afraid that Seska would kill me, B’Elanna, I was just afraid that she would do it slowly.” He looked away from her. “Some hero.”

She was suddenly angry. Angry at Tom for putting himself in such danger, angry at the captain for asking him to. “She had no right to ask you to do that.”

“Of course she did,” he said quietly, “she’s the captain.”

B’Elanna scowled. “She knew you wouldn’t say no when she asked you. It was cowardly of her not to just order you to do it.”

Tom was taken aback by her vehemence. He shook his head. “She made it perfectly clear I could back out. The night before I left she told me again. She didn’t force me into anything.”

“Didn’t she?” B’Elanna knew that hanging on to this anger was childish, but she wasn’t ready to let it go. She needed to be be angry at someone, and Tom, after what he’d gone through, didn’t seem like a fair target. 

“No, she really didn’t.”

B’Elanna stared at him, hard. Assessing. “You’ve been trying to prove something to her since we got here, Tom.”

He shook his head. “I wasn’t trying to impress the captain, B’Elanna. I was trying to prove myself to my father! It’s stupid. He’ll probably never know, but, I don’t want him to think of me as a screw-up. As a failure.”

“You’re not,” she said. Then more forcefully, “You’re not!”

He snorted. “Okay.”

“ _reH DuSIgh vavlI.”_ B’Elanna said the words softly.

“What does that mean,” Tom asked.

“It’s something my mother said to me after my father left, but I was never sure if it was meant to be comforting or an insult. It means: your father is a part of you always.” 

Tom nodded. “God, I’m tired.”

“We should probably get to bed. It must be late.”

“Careful, Torres,” he teased, “that sounded like an invitation.”

She laughed and stood. “Believe me, Paris, if it were, you’d be sure.”

They exited the mess and walked toward the turbolift. It opened immediately and they stepped inside. “Walk you to your quarters?” Tom asked, “You never know when some random ensign might jump out and proposition you. I could throw myself in front of you and protect you.” 

“How heroic,” she teased, “but unnecessary. I think I can fend off random ensigns all on my own.” She smiled at him, and his gorgeous eyes twinkled at her. She thought about his offer to share his holodeck time. _Ask me again_ , she thought. _Ask me again, and I’ll say yes._ But he didn’t, of course. 

The lift stopped at his deck and he stepped out, pausing to turn and look at her. “Good night, B’Elanna. And thanks.” 

He started down the corridor, and she stepped between the doors so they wouldn’t close. “Tom!” she called. 

He paused and turned back to her. “Yeah?”

She looked at him another moment, and smiled. “Don’t forget to ask Harry about that pool tournament. Five rations says I mop the floor with you.”

He grinned, delighted, and those beautiful eyes glowed. “You’re on, Torres.”

***

 _Don't let the tears linger on inside now_  
_'Cause it's sure time you gained control_  
_If I can help you, if I can help you_  
_If I can help you, just let me know_  
_Well let me show you the nearest signpost_  
_To get your heart back and on the road_  
_If I can help you, if I can help you_  
_If I can help you, just let me know_

**Author's Note:**

> Songwriters: Richard Davies / Roger Hodgson  
> Hide in Your Shell lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group


End file.
